1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting portion provided to a portable terminal apparatus of a portable cellular phone, a portable personal computer or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a conventional example of a portable terminal apparatus including a light emitting portion, there is disclosed a folding type portable telephone including a signal arrival lamp as an light emitting portion in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei. 6-326658.
According to the folding type portable telephone, a receiving portion and a transmitting portion are pivotably connected with each other through a hinge. A rod antenna is extendably provided on the receiving portion. Furthermore, an ear piece is provided at an upper portion of a front face, a liquid crystal display is provided at a central portion of the front face, and a received sound volume adjusting button is provided at a side face thereof. Meanwhile, ten keys for dialing and function buttons are provided at a front face of the transmitting portion, further, a mouth piece is provided at a lower portion of the front face, and a power source switch and a signal arrival lamp are provided at a side face at a lower end thereof. Further, a battery pack is mounted to a rear side of the transmitting portion.
Further, the signal arrival lamp of the folding type portable telephone spans a face of the mouth piece and a face of the power source switch and lamp surfaces at the respective faces are flat.
Further, a light emitting portion of the conventional portable terminal apparatus is constituted by a light source and a light conducting portion for conducting light emitted from the light source and by providing to expose a portion of the light conducting portion on a housing surface portion of the portable terminal apparatus, light is emitted by emitting the light from the light source from an exposed face thereof.
However, when the light conducting portion is constituted by a conducted light emitting member, having light diffusing performance, at the light conducting portion (hereinafter, conducted light emitting portion), a difference of brightness may occur between a portion on which the light from the light source is incident and a portion remote from the light incident portion. The larger the conducted light emitting portion and the wider the area of the conducted light emitting portion, the more significantly the brightness difference emerges. FIGS. 8(a) and (b) illustrate enlarged views at a peripheral portion of a conducted light emitting portion when a signal arrival lamp is regarded as the conducted light emitting portion and a surface area thereof is enlarged while the surface remains to be flat.
FIGS. 8(a) and (b) illustrate the enlarged views of the peripheral portions of the conducted light emitting portion, FIG. 8(a) is a perspective view of the peripheral portion of the conducted light emitting portion and FIG. 8(b) is a top view of the peripheral portion of the conducted light emitting portion.
The conducted light emitting portion of the signal arrival lamp shown in FIGS. 8(a) and (b), is large-sized while the surface of the conducted light emitting portion remains to be flat and in FIG. 8(b), there is also shown a light source of the signal arrival lamp built in the portable terminal apparatus. Further, light from the light source is emitted to the conducted light emitting portion and an outline brightness distribution at the conducted light emitting portion, is shown by contour lines of one-dotted broken lines. At a portion thereof near to the light source, the brightness is high. Meanwhile, at a portion thereof remote from the light source, the brightness is low.
Therefore, although a user of the portable terminal apparatus is informed of various alarms of signal arrival and the like by lighting the conducted light emitting portion, there is conceivable a problem that even when the above-described portion having high brightness of the conducted light emitting portion is assumedly concealed by some obstacle (finger, hand or the like) and the portion having low brightness is exposed, a user does not notice informing of signal arrival or the like since the brightness of the exposed portion is low.
Further, although it is conceivable to reduce the low brightness portion of the conducted light emitting portion by emitting light to the conducted light emitting portion by increasing a number of pieces of the light source, the increase in the light source not only increases fabrication cost of the portable terminal apparatus but constitutes a factor increasing power consumption of the portable terminal apparatus.
The invention has been carried out in view of such a situation and an object of the invention is to provide a portable terminal apparatus increasing brightness at a light emitting portion of a portable terminal apparatus.
In order to achieve the above object, the invention provides a portable terminal apparatus including a light emitting portion including a light source and a conducted light emitting portion for conducting and emitting light from the light source in a housing.
wherein the conducted light emitting portion includes a conducted light emitting member including a light diffusing agent and a recessed portion is provided at a face of the conducted light emitting portion exposed on a surface of the housing.
According to the portable terminal apparatus, the light from the light source is reflected by a surface of the recessed portion, the reflected light is further diffused and emitted by the conducted light emitting member at a vicinity of the surface of the recessed portion and therefore, brightness of the conducted light emitting portion at the vicinity of the recessed portion can be increased.
Therefore, when the recessed portion is provided at the conducted light emitting portion, a low brightness portion of the conducted light emitting portion is reduced (high brightness portion is increased) and accordingly, a user of the portable terminal apparatus easily recognizes informing of signal arrival or the like by illuminating.
Further, the low brightness portion of the conducted light emitting portion can be reduced without increasing a number of pieces of the light source.
The portable terminal apparatus of the invention is featured in that a surface of the recessed portion includes a surface portion having a projection of a height lower than a depth of the recessed portion.
According to the portable terminal apparatus, by providing the projection at the surface of the recess portion, the light from the light source is reflected by the projection. The reflected light is diffused and emitted by the conducted light emitting member at a vicinity of the projection and accordingly, brightness of the conducted light emitting portion at the vicinity of the projection can also be increased.
The portable terminal apparatus of the invention is characterized in that the surface of the recessed portion includes a surface portion in which a normal line of a face thereof and an optical axis of the light source form a predetermined angle other than 90xc2x0.
According to the portable terminal apparatus, the normal line of the surface portion and the optical axis of the light source form the predetermined angle other than 90xc2x0, an area of reflecting the light from the light source is widened and the light is diffused and emitted by the conducted light emitting member at the vicinity of the surface portion constituting the angle and therefore, brightness of the conducted light emitting portion at the vicinity of the surface portion constituting the angle can also be increased.
The portable terminal apparatus of the invention is characterized in further including a reflective film for reflecting the light from the light source to a side of an opposed face opposed to the exposed face of the conducted light emitting portion.
According to the portable terminal apparatus, the light emitted from the light source to the side of the opposed face, is reflected by the reflective film and therefore, brightness of the conducted light emitting portion can be increased.
The portable terminal apparatus of the invention is characterized in further including a printed layer which is colored or printed with a predetermined figure, which is a letter, a sign, a symbol or the like, between the reflective film and the conducted light emitting portion.
According to the portable terminal apparatus, in the case in which the printed layer between the reflective film and the conducted light emitting portion is a colored printed layer, when light reflected by the reflective film reaches an exposed face of the conducted light emitting portion, emitted light color at the exposed face becomes emitted light color in accordance with the colored color.
Further, when the printed layer between the reflective film and the conducted light emitting portion is a printed layer printed with characters or the like, the reflectivity differs between a printed portion and a non-printed portion and therefore, the printed portion can be made conspicuous.
The portable terminal apparatus of the invention is characterized in that the conducted light emitting portion includes an engaging portion engaged with the housing and the light from the light source is incident on the engaging portion.
According to the portable terminal apparatus, the light from the light source is made to be incident from the engaging portion and therefore, the incident light is further diffused at the engaging portion and the further diffused light can be emitted at the exposed face of the conducted light emitting portion.
The portable terminal apparatus of the invention is characterized in that the conducted light emitting portion is arranged to continuously span other surface of the housing in contact with a surface of the housing arranged with the conducted light emitting portion.
According to the portable terminal apparatus, the conducted light emitting portion continuously spans also the surface of other face in contact with the surface arranged with the conducted light emitting portion and therefore, the user can confirm a signal arrival state or the like also from the side of the other face (side face).
According to other aspect of the invention, the portable terminal apparatus is a portable terminal apparatus of a folding type including a first housing and a second housing connected via a hinge portion and pivotable to fold centering on an axis core of the hinge portion. In the portable terminal apparatus, the conducted light emitting portion is arranged at an area which is not covered by the second housing at an opposed face on a side of the first housing opposed to the second housing in a state of folding the two housings.
According to the portable terminal apparatus, even in the state of folding the two housings, an illuminating detecting portion can optically be recognized also from a side of an opposed face (rear face) opposed to an opposed face side of the second housing and therefore, a user can confirm a signal arrival state, a charge state or the like from the opposed face (rear face) side of the second housing.